Comment on Will I ever be seen as truly British?
LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 months ago
Not in the UK alongside British people for sure.
I’m in the same boat but not from Poland and I came over a tad later (12) but I’m also 5 years older.
I don’t actually have an accent inherently but I always use an American one to obscure my country of origin.
It’s really quite a backwards little country and they have an insular culture and hot opinions on ‘de immigants’ amongst other things, they’re just polite enough to keep it to the voting booth most of the time until the the child alcoholism and the FAS kicks in.
They will always see you as defined by your nationality first because to them, it makes you fundamentally different as a person because they themselves are fundamentally defined by their nationality - (you can often tell by how much they rely on this as material for ‘banter’) - rather than how many other people see it - as a random side note of historical background of yet another human on this planet - a citizen of the world if you will.
I recall meeting a friend group of my S.O. who’s been here all her life and went to school with those people and still the occasional joke about her country of origin gets a big laugh, not to mention the only brown person at the table only ever joked and got joked to about being Muslim, it wasn’t offensive or anything, but you’d think the guy was a hardcore religious leader by how much it came up when he seemed like just some guy to me.
They might keep you around to pitch in with a fun fact about Poland (even if you don’t really know any) or say something funny (to them) in your accent/language, but you’ll never be actually British and treated as just another one of the peeps about the place.
Try to surround yourself with other people from diverse backgrounds if you can, which won’t be possible in the norf (idk about Wales, never been) but you can definitely do this in London as British people are far and few between and so long as you steer clear of other majorly represented insular ethnic groups you can maybe find a multinational clique or what I had more luck with - an eastern european one with similar levels of integration and shared interests etc., and maybe consider living or visiting elsewhere, like the US which is far more diverse and your background matters far less.
Hope this helps.
sanguinepar@lemmy.world 5 months ago
British people are few and far between in London? Ok then.
LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 months ago
Compared to the rest of the country in the ethnic-cultural sense? Yeah absolutely.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_London
London is 36.8% White British
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester
For comparison a major metropolitan area lime the city of Manchester is 59.3% White British
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brighton_and_Hove#
Brighton is 80.5% White British
Furthermore in London, 40.7% of people are born in another country, and 56.8% of people are born to a foreign-born mother.
That’s what makes London so different from the rest of the country imo, and a way better place to be as a young person who doesn’t belong elsewhere.
livus@kbin.social 5 months ago
I think they were objecting to the phrase "few and far between".
You really can't use it to describe a situation of almost 2 in 5.
If 2 in every 5 cars you see are red you can't say red cars are few and far between.
LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 months ago
Oh sure. I was speaking relatively.
sanguinepar@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Nobody disputes that London has a substantially more diverse population than other places - but it’s still completely untrue to say “British people are few and far between” in London, even if you restrict it to White British (which your original claim did not).
LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 months ago
Simmer down buddy, no need to get your blood pressure up - I clarified the statement didn’t I?
CalciumDeficiency@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Blood expensive though
LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 months ago
Yee, 's why I left.